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Too Big Has Failed

TooBigHasFailed.org consists of a group of activists who think Wall Street could be better.In
many ways we mirror the efforts of community banks and credit unions in
wanting to end "too big to fail." That is, we support the basic idea of
banking as it should be, but we oppose what Wall Street has become
today - with all of its political favoritism, excessive size, and
reckless speculation.What's more, we believe that activist efforts can be a force for good in the world.

To illustrate: In his book Conscious Capitalism, Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey tells the story of confronting a group of activists who were protesting animal cruelty one day in front of a Whole Foods store. Initially Mackey was baffled by the protestors, thinking they were essentially a bunch of know-nothings. However, he decided to talk to them directly. He says that in the process of talking to them he discovered that they had done their research and that they had a legitimate point: Whole Foods could treat animals better. Mackey then made changes at Whole Foods Market - changes that improved his company. In the end, Mackey came away from the confrontation with a realization that protestors are metaphoric shareholders in his business and that they can be a constructive part of making business more ethical and more honest.

That is our aim at TooBigHasFailed.org. We want to reform Wall Street for good. We're concerned that it is currently out of control, and that it's planting the seeds of another financial crisis. We don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Instead, we want a better future - one where we no longer have to worry about all the economic problems associated with "too big to fail."

In short, we want to "unwind the megabanks into simpler, smaller, and less risky business models," as Roy Smith, former partner at Goldman Sachs, once said. To that end we support local lenders and ethical banking.